Reader Radar #1

Title:           Bike
Author:       Eric Carney
Publisher:   NightFire Publications (January 1, 2012)
Medium:     Kindle




I grabbed this short story from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, and kind of put off reading it until I had my Reader Radar plans finalized and posted.  Then I couldn’t wait to start reading short stories and finding those hidden gems.  I really think that Bike makes an ideal first short work of fiction for this blog series.

Bike was an interesting little read, and one that is worthy of Reader Radar, because it kept me thinking all the way through, and being the Ravenous Reader that I am, I was sure that I had the ending all played out in my head.  Well, I was impressed and surprised that the ending was totally not what I expected.

Mr. Carney really gave me, as a reader, an excellent visual perspective of the main character’s journey through a day that would surely change his life.  I felt the urgency and the pain and the fear that welled up and came to a head for the main character.  I was equally impressed because the main character is very young, and Mr. Carney provided a vocabulary equivalent of that age, and he did not try to make the boy greater than what he was.  I loved how the thunderstorm was symbolic of how rushed the main character felt, and the rising fear was experienced by me, the reader, with the escalation of the storm.  Though a short read, the amount of powerful feelings and culmination in this short story was copious and kept my attention up to the very end.

Bike would make a great little lunchtime read, but reader beware, if you are offended by any type of violence, this is definitely NOT for you.  If you are into great short stories with a lot of graphic visuals through the written word, with unexpected endings, then take 15 minutes and give this a go.

I looked around the web, on Goodreads, and on Twitter trying to find a website for the author Eric Carney, because I would love for him to see this review.  I will post this review on Goodreads and via Twitter, and hopefully, if anyone out there has a connection, they can pass this along.